Basilica of Santa Croce

Inside the Basilica

Although the origins of the first Franciscan
oratory are still lost in the mists of time, the construction of the new
Basilica of Santa Croce is well documented and was officially started on
May 3rd 1294, when the architect, Arnolfo di Cambio, laid the first stone
of what was to become a masterpiece of Gothic art. His design was based
on spatial grandiosity, with the structural elements carried out with rational
clarity and sobriety.

It is built on the plan of an Egyptian cross (in the shape of a T), with
the interior divided into three naves (114,45 metres), a chancel and a transept
full of chapels whose patronage was reserved for the most illustrious families
in this quarter of the city: the Bardi and Peruzzi families were the foremost,
but there were also the Tosinghi, Pulci, Rinuccini and Alberti families...The
walls of these chapels and the entire church were immediately covered in frescoes by
Giotto and his school, who turned the basilica into a museum of Florentine
Trecento painting. The same artists also designed the wonderful luminous
stained glass windows.

When at last the church was finished in 1442, it was consacrated by Pope
Eugene IV. The facade was left undecorated, in fact it was not completed
until 1857-63, more or less at the same time as the Belltower was rebuilt
to replace the original one which had been struck by lightning.

New architectural additions were introduced thanks to the patronage of Cosimo "the
Elder" de' Medici and Andrea de' Pazzi. The former had the Chapel
of the Novitiate built next to the Sacristy in 1434-45 by Michelozzo and
decorated by Andrea della Robbia and
Mino da Fiesole; the latter sponsored the Pazzi Chapel, in the first cloister
or Cloister of the Dead, designed by Filippo
Brunelleschi and started in around 1430.

Brunelleschi,
the Large Cloister

Brunelleschi also designed the second Cloister
of the Convent, or Greater Cloister, continued
after his death by Bernardo Rossellino (1453 circa) with a fine entrance
door (1450 circa) by Benedetto da Maiano.

Rather out of place in this substantially Gothic ambience, the Niccolini
Chapel (situated in the left transept) dates from a later period and
was carried out in around 1570 by the architect Giovanni Antonio Dosio. Giorgio
Vasari was
"remodernizing" the basilica for the Grand Duke Cosimo
I de' Medici more or less in the same period (1566-1584). This was
when the huge altars we can see on the walls in the side naves were built,
all of them enriched with religious paintings carried
out by the finest Florentine painters of the period.

Donatello, Annunciation

The basilica also contains numerous examples of typically Renaissance sculpture.
The most famous of these is the Crucifix by Donatello (1425, Bardi Chapel
in the left transept) and his aristocratic Annunciation in grey stone
with gilded highlights (1430-35), recently restored by the Opificio
delle Pietre Dure. Nor should we forget the Pulpit by Benedetto da
Maiano (1472-80) or the Madonna of Milk by Antonio Rossellino (1478),
placed above the tomb of Francesco Nori, prior of the Republic and
who died saving Lorenzo the Magnificent's life
at the time of the "Pazzi Conspiracy". Lastly, the two funeral
monuments by Bernardo Rossellino (1444-1451) and Desiderio da Settignano
(1455-64). The former, dedicated to Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444), humanist and
Chancellor of the Republic, is considered
a prototype among Renaissance tomb monuments.

The presence of a great many funeral monuments and tombstones (276 can
still be seen on the floor alone) has led to the Basilca being thought
of as the city Pantheon, the burial place of Florence's most illustrious
citizens. Somewhere here lie the tombs of Taddeo Gaddi and Count Ugolino
della Gherardesca. Other famous inmates include Michelangelo (tomb
by Vasari, 1570), Galileo Galilei (tomb
by Foggini, 1737), Vittorio Alfieri (tomb by Canova, 1810). Unfortunately
the monument to Dante, whose remains repose at Ravenna, is only a cenotaph
(S. Ricci, 1829). The poet Ugo Foscolo described the church and its Tombs
of the famous in his "Sepolcri".

Vasari,
tomb of Michelangelo

Other tombs can be found in the first cloister, beneath the loggia attached
to the church (the oldest), and in an undergound corridor. The latter
form a complete range of Neoclassical and Romantic sculpture. The Cloister,
which also contains the entrance to the Museum, can be reached directly
from the square.